Bama Services | Social Enterprise | Indigenous Employment Outcomes - with Cade Dawkins and Jono Coker Artwork

Time to Listen

Ever since the Federation of Australia, a plethora of politicians, academics and media personalities have opined and commentated on Indigenous Australian affairs. But amongst the discourse, whether it be formalised debate or discordant blither, one voice has been notably absent: the collective voice of First Nations people. As of 2020, First Nations peoples comprise just 3.3% of the Australian population. Yet they represent 29% of the incarcerated Australian population, including an estimated 46% of the incarcerated juvenile population. First Nations children also represent approximately 37% of Australian children in foster care. They suffer a suite of disparate mortality statistics and morbidity factors in comparison to the non-Indigenous population. They also enjoy far less participation in home ownership, education attainment and leadership positions, and even as all these gaps begin to show signs of narrowing, other contemporary socioeconomic gaps begin to yawn. Are First Nations voices being heard on such matters? Have you heard them? This is Time to Listen, a podcast that gives a space and a platform to the First Nations voices of the Cape York Peninsula, and wider Australia. Whether you are passionate about racial equality, or simply curious about First Nations culture (and anything in between) this is the podcast for you. Want to know more about the diversity of Indigenous Australian languages? Think you understand Native Title? How have First Nations communities educated their children since before colonisation, and how are these methods being rediscovered? And which terminology is respectful and correct for which occasion, First Nations, Indigenous, or Aboriginal Australian? Realising true harmony between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian people and culture requires opening a space and raising a platform for First Nations peoples themselves. By taking the time to listen, you have already taken a very important step towards reconciliation.

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Time to Listen

Bama Services | Social Enterprise | Indigenous Employment Outcomes - with Cade Dawkins and Jono Coker

June 22, 2021 • Cape York Partnership • Season 1 • Episode 7

Indigenous youth are twice as unlikely to gain employment relative to their non-Indigenous peers. The Indigenous employment rate decreased by two percentage points between the 2006 and 2016 census, and lags behind the non-Indigenous employment rate by a staggering 25 percentage points.
Why is this really the case, and what can be done about it?

Bama Services is a recognised social enterprise based in Far North Queensland. After ten years of rapid growth, the contract services organisation now reliably tenders and delivers upon multi-million dollar civil and landscape construction contracts, which has won them immense praise and endorsement from industry groups and various levels of government.
But Bama is concerned with far more than its bottom line, and has a vital social outcome as the core of its focus – Indigenous employment.

Over its 10 years of operations, Bama services has maintained an Indigenous employment rate of 75% or higher; either directly employing, or supporting the employment, of over 300 Indigenous persons.

In this episode of Time to Listen, Cade Dawkins, the General Manager of Bama Services, outlines exactly why Bama places value and emphasis on this social outcome, which has only served to take the organisation from strength to strength. His counterpart on this episode, Jono Coker, is an Indigenous man and Bama's longest serving employee. He has seen the organisation evolve from a humble gardens-maintenance enterprise to the stature that it holds today. Both men also comment on how the organisation's support and wellbeing program – which could serve as a model for any medium enterprise, and underpins the entirety of the organisation's operations – is paramount for consistently meeting their social ambitions.

Thank you for taking the time to listen.

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